Transition
by Hannah Taylor1
Summary: Afraid to feed for fear she'll be unable to control herself like Stefan, Elena leaves town after transitioning. Damon tracks her down. Elena's mindset changes as he helps her learn to accept who she now is and she begins to understand some of what he struggles with daily. The love that has always been between them emerges steadily, providing a bridge to Elena's new identity. DELENA
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm posting two chapters at once, just to set the scene for things. I also have the next four finished and am now editing. Reviews are always appreciated and encourage faster posting and writing. =)**

**If you haven't read them already, I highly recommend SecretIndulgence24's stories. "Lifting the Weight" may rank as my favorite Delena one-shot of all time, largely because I can SEE everything playing out on screen. It's a story that could be part of a TV episode, literally. All kinds of amazing, as are her other two fics.**

**Chapter 1**

There was a soft knock on Elena's door and Jeremy stuck his head in. "Hey. You … uh, you have a visitor."

Elena looked around at her friends. They'd spent the last 24 hours chasing down every possible avenue of escape—anything that might potentially keep Elena human. They had failed. Bonnie's absence in the room spoke volumes about their failure and the repercussions Elena's transition would have on their already strained friendship.

"You're out of time," Caroline said quietly, reaching out and taking Elena's hand.

"You sure you want a vampire for a big sister?" Elena asked Jeremy wearily, knowing what his answer would be. They'd done little more than argue about it ever since she woke up after the accident.

"What's the alternative?" he retorted, eyes red with fatigue and grief. "You can't die, Elena. I can't let that happen."

Her brother had nobody else. Not even Alaric. If only for that reason, Elena's 'decision' had been made the moment her friends returned without an alternative solution. She couldn't abandon Jeremy. Unable to speak, she nodded and bit her lower lip, indicating he should send her visitor in.

The door opened all the way. Elena sat up halfway in surprise, swaying from the minimal effort. Caroline steadied her. She'd been expecting Damon with blood bags. She was _not _expecting Damon pushing an ashen-faced Matt in a wheelchair.

"What's going on?" she asked uncertainly.

Damon's clenched jaw spoke volumes about how tightly he was keeping his volatile emotions in check. Nevertheless, the venom in his voice betrayed him as he wheeled Matt towards Elena's bed. "Since Matt was the one who helped _kill_ you, he wants to be the one that now makes you _undead."_

Elena let out a horrified gasp. "Damon, you can't compel him to do this!"

"He didn't." Matt's voice was hoarse but steady. "I offered, Elena."

Damon pushed the wheelchair right up to her bed and locked the wheels. Elena looked from one to the other, taking in Matt's hospital gown, the sling his arm was in, the pallor of his face.

"You can't," she said firmly. "You're hurt."

"You only need to take a little bit, Elena." Damon rubbed his jaw, about as tired as she'd ever seen him. "It won't affect his healing."

The vampire's clothes were soaked with mud for some reason she didn't understand, his face set in a grim mask that betrayed his emotional turmoil. It was his stolen blood that was responsible for her life. Once again, he had saved Elena when she didn't want to be saved, albeit unwittingly this time. The irony was too much for her to think about at the minute.

"Why can't I just take from a blood bag?" she insisted.

"I don't want you to." Matt leaned in, blue eyes cloudy with exhaustion. "I'm the reason this is happening to you, Elena."

"No. I'm the reason," Stefan spoke from the corner of the room where he'd been standing silently for the last 45 minutes. "You don't have to do this, Matt."

Surprisingly, Damon didn't jump in with a scathing attack. Nobody had said much of anything to Stefan after the initial fight that occurred at Elena's bedside when Damon first discovered why she was dead.

"There's always me." Jeremy raised a hand.

Damon batted his hand down, scowling. "_Not_ an option," he pointed out, indicating Elena's horrified face. "_Obviously."_

They were trying so hard to be helpful and yet they were robbing her of the only decision she had left. Elena shook her head vehemently.

"No. Matt, I'm not going to—"

"I _want _to!" Matt shouted, startling them all with the sudden volume. "Don't you get it?" he demanded, staggering to his feet and grabbing Caroline's arm to steady himself. "Vicky died and I never had a chance to do anything about it. I wasn't there. I didn't even know about it until months later! Caroline became a vampire and you guys kept it from me. Bonnie turned into a witch and I didn't know for ages. First, Tyler was a werewolf, now he's a hybrid. And I can't do _anything_ about any of it!" He slammed his unbroken fist into the metal armrest of his chair. "I was driving the car when it went over the bridge. You're dead because Stefan saved me. I'm the one who should have died. I _wish _I would have died!"

Elena grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. "Matt, don't—"

"I want to do this, Elena. Please. This is something I can actually do for somebody." He held out his wrist, visibly shaken. "Just—bite me. Take what you need and finish this thing."

"I don't know how," Elena whispered, eyes darting automatically to Damon. "How do I—" she trailed off, almost gagging at the word that now had an entirely new connotation. _Feed_.

He nodded his head at Caroline, indicating she should move aside. Reluctantly, the blonde scooted over so she knelt behind Elena, one hand hovering protectively on her shoulder. Matt edged onto the bed, looking up at Damon for assistance.

"How do I do this?"

Damon took Elena's shoulders and turned her gently, aligning her body with Matt's arm. His touch reassured her somehow that she might actually make it through this new challenge.

"All you have to do is hold it to your mouth," Caroline explained. "Everything happens automatically."

"How do I know how much is enough? What if I hurt him?"

"You won't." Damon lifted Matt's wrist and held it up to her. "Just lean in, Elena. You'll know what to do."

One last time, she looked up at Matt for confirmation that this was what he wanted. He nodded stiffly, even more pale than before.

"Go for it."

She no longer had a heartbeat. Already, she missed it. If she'd been human, her pulse would have been pounding in her ears as she inhaled the scent of the blood right beneath his fragile skin. Instead, the only reminder of her humanity when her fangs pierced Matt's wrist were the tears that filled Elena's eyes as he flinched. She almost pulled back, but somebody's hand was at her neck, refusing to let her quit.

"You have to drink, Elena. Not just bite him."

Matt's blood flowed into her mouth, coating her lips, her tongue, her teeth, and she hated that she craved the thick sweetness suddenly—she lost track of time as the heady liquid surged through her, every bit as potent as any wine ….

"Elena. Elena. Elena, that's enough. Elena." Strong hands pulled her away insistently, grasping her shoulders firmly and shaking her. "Enough."

She blinked, bewildered at the sudden change, feeling as though she'd missed something. "Wh-what?"

The room was awkwardly silent and she looked around, trying to understand what was wrong. Everything was brighter suddenly, more vivid, so much that her eyes stung and she blinked repeatedly, finally focusing in on Matt who was somehow back in the wheelchair, so white it looked like somebody had drained the color right out of him. Caroline was applying pressure to his wrist, while Damon held his own up to Matt's protesting lips.

"Matt?" Elena whispered, horror filling her slowly as she glanced over at Jeremy and saw him exchanging a tense look with Stefan. "What did I do?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: It may be implausible that a new vampire could resist feeding, but Elena's a lot more stubborn than most human beings. I figured that characteristic would only be heightened after she transitioned. Reviews are always appreciated. =)**

**Chapter 2**

Damon turned a page of the novel he was attempting to read and scowled at the nonsensical plot line. The bedroom door creaked open and he looked up from his spot sprawled in the chair directly opposite the room.

Elena's gray face peered out at him, cheeks drawn to the point of being emaciated. She looked so desiccated that if Damon hadn't personally witnessed her completing the transition, he would have worried that she'd somehow pulled a fast one and managed not to drink Matt's blood.

"_Going _somewhere?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow and deliberately using sarcastic inflection to mask his deep worry. Even though vampires couldn't technically gain or lose weight—that would require a metabolism—the lack of blood in Elena's system had caused her to wither, to the point where it looked like her body was caving in. Usually lustrous and full, her hair lay flat, dull and matted against her scalp, the product of too many days lying on a pillow refusing to even brush it. Her lips were a thin blue line, compressed tightly against pain. But the worst part were her eyes, so blank, staring through him devoid of anything except exhaustion mingled with disbelief.

Damon steeled himself, refusing to give in. More than anything he wanted to take her in his arms, tell her she wasn't alone, that he loved her and they would get through this as a team. He and Stefan had both tried some version of that, although Stefan's distraught condition had required almost more comforting than Elena did.

The approach hadn't worked, to say the least. Ever since transitioning, Elena had refused to do more than take the smallest sips of blood, not enough to sustain any vampire, much less a baby. After two weeks Damon had called time and insisted on a new approach.

Finally seeming to process his question, Elena mumbled, "Bathroom."

"Something wrong with the one in your room?"

He searched for a flash of her former temper, some spark of anger at what she'd once called his "caveman" ways, but there was nothing. Elena took a step backwards and closed the door softly.

"Do you have to be so mean?"

He looked over his shoulder and encountered Caroline's livid face. No lack of emotion in that one, anyway.

"She's hurting, Damon." The blonde stalked over, her own personal fog of fury preceding her by at least three steps. "Maybe you don't remember what it was like at the very beginning—"

"Don't go there, Caroline," Damon warned. "Elena has sympathy in spades. You could dig a graveyard with them. What she doesn't have enough of is _bullies_."

"Bullies?" Caroline repeated acidly, arms crossed in front of her so tightly he was fairly certain she was contemplating breaking his neck.

"She needs someone to bully her out of that damn shell of self-pity. Someone who will hold her down and pour blood into her throat until she gets _over _it. But … since nobody will let me do that …" Damon jerked his head at the closed door, "this is the next best thing. Soon as she feeds properly, she's free to leave." He eyed the shower caddie Caroline was toting, crammed with all manner of hairbrushes, combs, shampoos, nail polish. "What's with the beauty salon to go thing?"

A proud smile touched Caroline's lips. "First, we get her looking more human," she explained. "_Then _we can work on the vampire side of things."

Damon contemplated her from his seat for a long moment, unfamiliar emotions working their way through his weary defenses. Neurotic control freak that she was, Caroline had more than proved her worth as a friend these last weeks. Her utter devotion to Elena had confirmed her in Damon's mind as that rare thing—a worthwhile human being. Slash vampire.

He got to his feet and cleared his throat. "I—uh—I owe you an apology."

"For what?" Caroline's blue eyes were immediately suspicious. "What did you do, Damon?"

"Elena's lucky," he said quietly, ignoring her predictable question. "You're a good friend, Caroline. The way I treated you when we first met. It was … wrong of me."

She pursed her lips at the memory and glared at him. "It was."

He nodded stiffly at her, unable to find anything else to say, and headed into the library.

Stefan's bleak voice greeted him from the depths of an armchair where he had basically taken up residence. "Still nothing?"

Damon spared him a cold glance on his way to the bar. He hadn't even begun to deal with his anger at Stefan yet. Staying stoic for Elena was consuming every shred of limited human emotion in him. His baby brother's hopelessness only further infuriated him. He didn't have the right to lose hope. Stefan had _killed _hope, therefore, he had to find a way to resurrect it. Instead, he was currently ensconced in a cloud of martyrdom and misery so deep he was practically creating his own microclimate.

"Nope." Damon searched for his most expensive bourbon and came up empty. "Bags, mugs, shot glasses, tea cups, tumblers—how else can you package blood besides in a human neck?"

"She shouldn't be able to resist," Stefan muttered.

"She's resisted me all these years." Damon frowned and started through the bottles again. "How much more difficult can blood be?"

"Maybe being a doppelganger changes things."

"Didn't stop Katherine," Damon shrugged. "Elena's supernatural talent has always been her ability to drive me completely _insane_ with her stubbornness. Among other things. Hey, have you seen the third of Martin Mills bourbon left over from—"

A clink alerted him and Damon turned, eyebrows raised. Stefan clutched a glass tumbler in one hand and the bottle in the other.

"Really?" He stalked over and snatching the empty bottle away. "That stuff goes for $100 a shot, Stefan. If you need more than bunny blood to soothe your guilty conscience, can you at least use Wal-Mart whiskey? Not like you can tell the difference anyway."

"I went back to get her immediately," Stefan whispered, staring at his feet.

"Well, thanks to you the world now has one more quarterback," Damon snarled, the fury from the last weeks finally beginning to come to a head. Only his pledge to Elena kept him from tearing Stefan limb from limb. She'd barely spoken since transitioning, other than to plead for peace between the brothers. She'd finally dragged a promise out of him and Damon intended to honor it, if only because Elena had already lost so much. He couldn't add Stefan to that carnage.

"I did what she asked," Stefan said dully.

"Yeah? How'd that work out for you, Stefan?" He hurled the empty bottle against the wall. "_Remind me."_

"It was her _choice_, Damon. You've never understood—"

"_No, __**you've**__ never understood!"_ Damon swept half the bar's contents onto the floor. He kicked at an ottoman, putting it on a direct collision course with a sidetable that held several priceless antiques. The loud shattering didn't begin to punctuate his rage.

"All those choices I took from her, the ones that made her hate me—those were choices _she wasn't supposed to have to make_!" He upended a table covered with books, sending several straight into the blazing fireplace.

"A girl her age should be choosing her clothes," he sent a sculpted bust flying and was disappointed when it didn't brain Stefan, "_electives_, boyfriends, sports, colleges, makeup, books to read, girlfriends, earrings,_ jobs_."

A lamp and an entire bar setting died next. "She should be choosing what fights to pick with her brother. She should _not _be selecting strategies to survive close encounters with the undead or deliberating who lives or dies!"

"What is going on in here?"

Both brothers looked up, Stefan from his position paralyzed in the chair and Damon from a bookshelf he was about to reduce to wooden smithereens.

Hand on her hips, Caroline radiated indignation. "I was finally getting somewhere when we heard all … this." She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Is Bonnie here?" Damon demanded.

"Huh?" Caroline sputtered. The witch had stayed away since Elena's transition. "No. Why would you—"

"Matt? Meredith? Jeremy?"

Before she could start to reply, he was beside her, insisting, "Who's_ with _her, Caroline?"

"You can't keep her a prisoner forever, Damon," she spat. "She's fine. As fine as she can be with everything she's dealing with. I'm just going to go get her a fresh bag of blood and she promised—"

Damon was already long gone by the time she finished her sentence. He sped down the hallway and pulled up short as he found the door wide open for the first time in 17 days. "Shit!"

Another burst of speed and he was inside the room, scanning the empty bed, couch, closet. The windows were nailed shut, after Bonnie had refused to spell them. He rushed into the deserted bathroom and back out again, nearly colliding with Caroline and Stefan as they came after him.

It took him roughly 60 seconds to blitz through every room in the house, basement included. He finally stopped on the front porch, scaring the life out of Jeremy when he raised his hand to open the front door and a gust of wind in the shape of Damon bulldozed past him, eyes wide with panic and trained on the empty street. He clenched his fists and roared,

"_ELENA!"_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Elena sprawled sideways on two seats, deliberately taking up all available space in an attempt to warn off anybody who might try and claim the spot beside her. Her stomach might not be grumbling, but her fangs were doing the vampire equivalent, threatening to make an unwanted appearance every time a fellow passenger wandered past her in the aisle.

She knew she wouldn't be able to hold off feeding permanently. Her vague plan included putting several thousand miles between herself and Mystic Falls before the inevitable happened. In the meantime, close proximity to anyone at the moment was a very bad idea.

Her phone buzzed and she couldn't help checking it. She might not be answering, but the messages from home gave her something to hold onto as she moved further and further away.

Damon's latest message carried an explicit threat: _**You can't hide. I WILL find you, Elena.**_

He would. After a summer of chasing Stefan, Elena knew all too well how stubborn Damon could be when he was out to find somebody. However, she'd been involved in that chase, so she had some knowledge of his mindset, at least.

Driving hadn't been an option. Her car was too easy to track, and renting a vehicle would require a credit card. If there was a paper trail, Damon would uncover it.

A plane carried the same risk. Her name would be on the passenger list and Damon _would _find it.

Mystic Falls didn't have a train station.

So in the end Elena had gone Greyhound, knowing that would be the last avenue Damon would check. Her only hope was that by the time he did locate her, she would have dug her heels in deep enough in a new city that he couldn't pry her free.

Elena shifted uncomfortably and rearranged her backpack so it served as a makeshift pillow. To avoid watching the darkening landscape as it slowly became less familiar, she closed her eyes and wished she'd asked Caroline about managing her suddenly super sensitized hearing. Since leaving the boarding house she'd barely slept at all, unable to filter out the endless noise around her. The older gentleman in the row beside her sucked his teeth noisily, a long, loud slurp in between each ragged snore. Toward the front, a woman coughed repeatedly into a pillow, her efforts to be polite not helping Elena in the least. A nearby couple _thought _they were being discreetly amorous, unaware that their impromptu make out session was being broadcast in surround sound for Elena's brain. The hum of the engine, the whir of the air conditioning, the driver's constant shifting in her seat-

It all grated on Elena, abrading her exhausted nerves until she wanted to scream. She had cycled through various stages of amusement and annoyance before culminating in a coldly unreasonable, unrecognizable fury that she was just barely holding in check.

The bus made a sharp right hand turn, coming to a shuddering stop at a dimly lit gas station. A blast of static scoured her sensitive ears, preceding an announcement by the driver:

"Okay, folks. This will be your last break of the evening before reaching Lumberton. Please be back on the bus in 15 minutes. In 15 minutes, this bus WILL depart, whether or not you are on it. Restrooms and snacks are available inside the station."

Grabbing her backpack, Elena hurried out of the bus before other passengers were even on their feet. The cool night breeze hit her square in the face and she sighed with relief after far too many hours of stale air. She headed into the gas station restroom, washing her face and grimacing at the disaster that was her hair.

A middle-aged woman emerged from a stall and joined her at the sinks. "Long trip?" she asked with a friendly smile as she turned on the water.

"Endless," Elena replied, shaking her head and trying to comb out some of the tangles with her fingers.

"Where you comin' from?"

"Virginia."

"I been on the bus since Washington, D.C." The woman frowned as she fiddled with the soap dispenser. "Talk about endless. Excuse me." The woman leaned across Elena's sink, reaching for her soap.

She froze as the woman lingered, fussing with the soap again. "You'd think they'd refill these things a little more frequently, what with all the traffic." The woman's t-shirt slid sideways, exposing freckled shoulder skin leading into a long neck that was now poised directly within Elena's reach. "I can't tell you how thankful I'll be when we finally reach Sumter." Elena's eyes were riveted on the pulse of the carotid artery. She could hear the slow, steady beat over the woman's incessant prattling, "Mmmm ... warm bed, clean sheets and coffee that doesn't taste like lighter fluid. All it takes to make me happy."

The warm scent of blood so close at hand overwhelmed Elena and she felt her eyes narrowing, the tips of her fangs forcing their way over her lips. She backed away desperately, tripping over a garbage can in her haste.

The woman eyed her curiously in the mirror, wholly unaware that she was seconds from becoming breakfast, lunch, and dinner. "Everything all right?"

Elena fled the bathroom and promptly collided with a teenage gas station employee who was putting up "Bathroom Closed For Cleaning" signs. She muttered an apology and stumbled away trying to avoid the press of multiple bodies around her, all fragrant with blood. A beer cooler caught her attention and she paused in front of it, thinking back to what Damon had said once about using alcohol to cut the craving. That, however, would require an ID.

_Couldn't I have died after turning 21, at least? _Elena bolted from the store, senses reeling. The bus was still half-empty when she boarded and she collapsed into her seat gratefully, intent on getting at least 5 minutes of relative peace before everything got crowded again.

Exhausted, she was just beginning to drift off into a tense, hungry sleep when passengers began to reboard the bus. When the old man across the aisle traded places with his seatmate so he could lean against the window, she breathed a sigh of relief. Even that marginal extra bit of space between them might keep her from lunging if he started sucking his dentures again.

The formerly loving couple had gotten into an argument over something or other and were now giving each other the silent treatment, so another source of noise was temporarily mitigated.

All she had to contend with was the relentless coughing of the woman up ahead. Annoyance stirred Elena instead of compassion. She was trying to sort through her wholly unreasonable irritation when another staticky announcement came over the sound system.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please. One of our buses is experiencing engine trouble. We've taken on several passengers who need to make a connection in Sumter. Please make room for them and remember that your ticket is valid only for one seat."

Alarmed nudged at her and she made a determined effort to ignore it. There was no reason for anyone to disturb her. She'd counted at least three empty seats. Curling her body around her backpack and clutching it like a life preserver, Elena tried to ignore the chaos as people resettled themselves and their belongings.

When the bus doors whooshed closed she relaxed slightly as they finally got underway again. She draped a sweatshirt over herself to give off the impression that she was sleeping and to ward off the mild airconditioned chill. Since becoming a vampire, she'd been incessantly cold both inside and out. Closing her eyes, she sank into the uncomfortable seat. Restless sleep was hovering at the fringes of her consciousness when she suddenly became aware of footsteps shuffling down the aisle. Apparently a passenger was already heading for the disgusting restroom.

"Is this seat taken?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you so much to those of you have commented, favorited, and followed the story. It means a lot to know people are interested.**

**Chapter 4**

Caroline stood in the entrance to the Salvatore library watching as Damon worked his way methodically through a bookshelf, his back turned toward her. She held little affection for the man, but there was no denying he was unfortunately attractive from all angles.

Extracting one large volume and rifling through it, he didn't spare her a glance while coolly asking,

"Do you have something useful to say? Or are you just standing there watching because I'm pretty?"

"How did you know she would run?"

Damon pointedly ignored the question and shoved the book back in place before moving onto the next shelf.

"You warned us not to give her the daylight ring yet. We didn't listen."

"How's that for novelty?" he muttered dryly, eyes trained on the volumes in front of him.

Caroline bit back a retort that wouldn't serve her purpose. "You were right, okay? I admit it. How did you know? Elena never runs away."

Damon made a derisive noise. "_That _would be novelty." He pulled out several ancient tomes, scanned them, and shoved them back. "Anytime danger threatens, Elena runs straight toward it all _damn the torpedoes and let me die for my friends and family_."

She had to admit that was an apt, if insensitive description. "So then why would she-"

"Because this time _she's _the danger, Caroline." His tone was withering. "And she's running as far away from her loved ones as possible."

She scowled, unable to argue the point. The thought that the evil vampire knew Elena better than Caroline, who had grown up with her, was unsettling.

"What are you doing?" She walked up the library railing and braced her hands on it.

Before she knew what was happening, Damon had vaulted over the railing and slammed her into the farthest wall.

"I'm not killing anybody," he hissed, fingers wrapping around her throat with brutal strength.

Caroline clawed at him, knowing she couldn't begin to fight him off as she once had when he attacked her father. This time the vampire was not only older but far, far angrier.

"I _want_ to kill somebody." Before her eyes, Damon vamped out, his handsome appearance turning demonic as he shoved his face into hers. "If the streets of this town were bleeding, it wouldn't be enough for me."

She flailed, vision beginning to cloud as his grip tightened.

"Why is it that suddenly nobody else can count to three in our supernatural little family?" He jabbed his fingers into her chest as he elaborated. "Elena dying." **Jab.** "Turning." **Jab.** "Fleeing." **Jab. **"Has all the hallmarks of a Damon rampage."

He flung Caroline across the room, sending her crashing into a sofa. Before she could recover, the older vampire was on her, snarling.

"I want to _kill_, Caroline. But I can't. Because then Liz will show up on my doorstep all 'Help me, Damon, help me,' and _that_ would be a distraction from finding Elena before she breaks down, feeds, and accidentally kills somebody. That's something she may never recover from emotionally. I can't allow that to happen." Abruptly, he released Caroline and sped back to the library shelves, resuming his previous activity. "_You_ are a distraction. Go away."

Slowly, Caroline got to her feet, wincing as she reoriented several dislocated bones. Try as she might, she couldn't find it in herself to be angry. Stefan was the one Elena had loved for years and she'd put herself in peril repeatedly to bring him back from the edge where Klaus had pushed him. Yet he was off somewhere soaking in self-righteous pity, still insisting he'd done the right thing in honoring Elena's wishes even when they wound up leading her straight to an early grave.

Damon, the bad brother, the dark Salvatore with the reputation for callous cruelty, was the one turning the world upside down, book by book at the minute, to track Elena down and bring her back safely.

Caroline approached the bookshelves again, feeling Damon tense up as she neared the railing. She studied him for a long minute, considering the implications of him denying his bloodlust in order to focus on finding her friend.

"You really love her, don't you."

"Haven't you heard?" he sneered, slamming a book shut. "I'm incapable of feeling."

She sighed and decided the taste of crow was the only thing that was going to break this stalemate. "The other day you apologized to me. Turnabout's fair play."

Damon ignored her completely, total disinterest radiating from him in waves.

"You're still a total ass and a jerk and an overall danger to everybody. But." She jumped over the railing and grabbed the book currently in his hands. Damon's lip curled in warning but Caroline stood her ground. "I was wrong. You're not just after Elena because of the whole bad blood between brothers thing. You actually like _love_ her love her."

_"Duh." _He rolled his eyes and yanked the book away, turning toward the shelf yet again.

Caroline stifled her impatience at his rudeness. She'd earned at least some of it. "I'm sorry."

Damon shrugged. "Apology accepted conditionally."

"Conditionally?"

"I know Stefan has been scheming to keep me out of the loop for obvious reasons. You guys have to have been meeting, but I haven't exactly been invited. With Ric gone, I no longer have an 'in' with the werewolf-hybrid-human-witch-ghost seeing groupies."

However well he couched it with sarcasm, Damon couldn't completely hide the loneliness in the voice. Caroline frowned, unhappy to have her perceptions of him so completely overturned. Lonely, loving Damon was so much harder to hate.

"You're Ms. Organization. Clearly, you haven't been sitting around doing nothing in the 48 hours since Elena went missing." Damon blew the dust off a particularly ancient volume and glared at the cover. "Tell me what you've been up to and all will be forgiven."

Caroline nodded. Fair enough.

"I have my mom checking for a paper trail in case Elena slipped up and paid for anything with plastic. Jeremy and Meredith are calling all the car rental places they can find in Virginia and neighboring states. Stefan was supposed to becalling hotels."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Was?"

Somehow it felt like a betrayal telling Damon about his brother's consistent refusal to help with much of anything.

"He keeps insisting we honor Elena's choice and let her establish a new life somewhere else without interfering."

To her surprise, Damon didn't fly off the handle. "Naturally." He went back to his book browsing. "My brother is nothing if not predictably unpredictable. He let her choose to _die_, now he wants to let her choose to live. Meanwhile, Elena's undead in unfamiliar territory with nobody to show her the ropes of her new identity. But that's okay, because as long as St. Stefan lets her keep choosing, she'll never be angry at him."

"I never thought of it that way," Caroline said slowly.

He lifted a shoulder in mild disdain and continued with whatever he was doing, selecting books and then shoving them back again almost immediately. "Credit cards, car rentals, hotels. Have you called airlines yet?"

"Yeah. That's all Matt and I have been doing for the last two days. Elena's name hasn't shown up on any of the passenger lists yet. All the customer service departments are closed for the evening. That's why I'm here."

"Hmmm." Damon drummed his fingers on a shelf as he studied it closely. "What's Judgy's delegated assignment?"

"Uh ..." Caroline hedged. "Bonnie's sort of in between jobs."

Again, Damon seemed casually unsurprised. "Let me guess. She can't make up her mind about whether or not she's with Stefan on this."

"You can't blame her," Caroline protested. "Bonnie wants what's best for Elena. Except ..."

"Except now Elena's a vampire and Bonnie's not sure about whether she can handle yet another an undead bestie." Damon waved one hand and pulled an ancient leather journal free with the other. "More to the point, she can't decide if she can handle another fanged Mystic Falls citizen." His eyebrows drew together as he read the cover of the book. "But ... you're going to have to rope her into joining us anyway."

"Why?" Caroline craned her neck to peer at the journal but couldn't understand the writing.

"Tell her to bring her witchy stuff and self over to Ric's place ASAP." Damon moved away, striding purposefully toward the door before turning as if an afterthought had just struck him. "You better come too, just in case she decides to juju me."

"Why Alaric's place? And how will whatever's in that book help Elena?" Caroline asked in bewilderment.

"By now you should know, Blondie." He smiled, grim satisfaction hardening the planes of his face. "When it comes to the Gilberts and their individual calamities, the answer's almost always somewhere in writing."

**TVDTVDTVD**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Before reading this chapter, you may want to refresh your memories of the various car incidents Elena has been in: her parents' car crash, the bird scene with Bonnie in the pilot when they're driving to school, swerving to avoid the vampire after finding out she looks exactly like Katherine, Vicky trying to barbecue her, Stefan and Wickery Bridge, Matt swerving to avoid Rebekah. (Judging from that recap, Elena really needs to find an alternate mode of transportation!)**

**Also-I improvised dialogue between Elena's parents and bad weather for the original car accident. It was all misty and foggy when Elena spoke to Damon on the road, so maybe it's plausible a storm was rolling in? **

**Chapter 5**

There had been a time not so long ago when Elena woke gradually from sleep. That slow ease into the morning, where first she felt the sun on her face, followed by the sound of her alarm clock or Jeremy wandering the hallway, before finally opening her eyes-that had died when she did, replaced by an immediate consciousness the moment a sound or a scent drifted her way.

Crammed up against the bus window as far as she could get from the unwitting passenger beside her, Elena's subconscious caught the thick aroma of blood, so near it might almost have been under her own skin. That was followed by an instant awareness of a heavy body reclined upon hers.

Elena bolted upright, knocking her sleeping seatmate from the perch he'd established on her breast. He slammed back into the seat, eyes flying open in confusion and widening as he saw the look on Elena's face. Hunger descended on her so quickly she had no chance to fight it. She grabbed her prey's shirt and yanked him back into her, simultaneously pinning his shoulder in a viselike grip and tearing his shirt aside. The man barely had a chance to cry out before she dived toward his meaty neck.

Her mouth had just connected with skin, bypassing the sweat-slick surface and its adjacent tendons in search of the pulsing artery that had disrupted her dreams, when Elena's hypersensitive senses picked up on the skid of nearby tires. Caught between feral hunger and recent recollection, she paused uncertainly.

Two horns sounded a warning-one small and distant from outside, one loud and near at hand, reverberating all around the confined space-followed by a violent swerve by the bus to the left. People screamed, lurching to the right when the driver overcompensated and the vehicle veered sharply, then left again, then right, before shuddering down a steep incline and colliding with something unyielding that shattered safety glass along with human bodies.

Passengers tumbled every which way, their high pitched cries soundtracked in Elena's mind by metal crumpling, plastic shearing, bones snapping and body organs rupturing. Her fangs were torn from the man's flesh but her fingers somehow weren't. They catapulted from the seat still locked together, bodies spiraling in a twisted tango that ended when a flying suitcase smashed into Elena's head and she blacked out, lost in a confused tangle of memories, some which she hadn't even known existed.

_**Windshield wipers pulsing steadily. **_

_Slow down, Grayson. Maybe we should've waited for the storm to pass._

_Oh my God. Elena, are you okay? _

_Katherine._

_**Rain reverberating off metal ceiling.**_

_We're fine, Miranda. The car needed a wash anyway._

_It was like a bird or something; it came out of nowhere._

_Oh. You-you just look-I'm sorry. _

_**Phone ringing.**_

_Hello, Damon. She's a little busy right now._

_It's the only way I was gonna get you in this truck._

_You just really remind me of someone._

_**Flash of lightning through a saturated window pane.**_

_I'm making my next move._

_I'm sorry, Elena, but you're right, okay? You don't have any parents to tell you what's right or wrong._

_I'm Damon._

_**Thunder rolling.**_

_Let me ask you something. What's Klaus gonna do if he can't make anymore hybrids?_

_You've got me and Jeremy and a bunch of vampires fightin' a war you shouldn't be in the middle of._

_You're one to talk. You're out here all by yourself._

_**Phone out the window.**_

_I took Klaus' family to make him suffer. I'm not gonna let him make himself a new one._

_I'm getting you out of town, Elena. It's the only way to keep you safe._

_You want what everybody wants._

_**Tires scrabbling. **_

_Maybe I'll just turn you into a vampire._

_This isn't how our lives were supposed to be, Elena._

_Let's just say I've been around a long time. I've learned a few things._

_**Vehicle hydroplaning.**_

_Honey, watch out, that puddle looks deep!_

_Tell your hybrids to get out of town, Klaus._

_You want a love that consumes you. _

_**Engine accelerating.**_

_Okay. Well then I'm gonna drive your blood source off of Wickery Bridge._

_Elena. Damon's not with them. He's 100 miles out of town._

_You want passion. And adventure. And even a little danger._

_**Torn human flesh forced against lips.**_

_I just fed her my blood. No more hybrids if she's a vampire._

_I can keep driving to him, or I can turn around and go back to Stefan. It's your choice._

_I want you to get everything you're looking for. _

_**Sensation of being airborne.**_

_Really? Try me. Because your coffins are next to go._

_I see all the geniuses came out to the bonfire tonight._

_But right now I want you to forget that this happened. _

_**Silver and blue flames.**_

_Say goodbye to your family, Klaus._

_Elena! Elena! Open the door!_

_Can't have people knowing I'm in town yet. _

_**Headlights reflecting off the water's surface as it closes in.**_

_Good night, Elena._

_**Man in the road. Brakes squealing. Windshield imploding. Shadowy figure approaching. Screaming. Familiar blue gaze, narrowed with worry. **_

_How you doin' in there?_

_**Jumbled feelings of fear, shock, pain but most of all, relief. **_

_Damon._

"Oh my God. Is everybody okay?"

The high-pitched question was so inane, it dragged Elena from the watery grave of her memories. She forced her eyes open and tried to move her aching neck minimally, just enough to focus on whoever was speaking. It took a moment for her to realize that the bus had finally come to rest upside down, the floor now a ceiling carpeted with people screaming hysterically from wherever they'd landed.

Something was wrong with her eyes. Everything was blurred, lopsided-she tried to shove aside the duffel bag that had landed across her midsection and stopped as pain stabbed through her. Elena clutched her shattered ribcage, her moans joining the general chorus all around her. She lay still, wanting desperately to do something to help ease the wounded wailing. Then, insidiously, she became aware that she had other priorities besides rendering first aid.

_Oh no._

For just one second, her brain had forgotten, but her body hadn't. The smell of bleeding injuries saturated her starving senses, leaving her with only one instinct.

_Feed._

Elena turned her head and found that her vision had cleared, her vampire blood already healing her of whatever head injury she'd sustained. A foot away, she spotted see the female half of the necking teenagers. The girl was crumpled at an upright angle between a destroyed seat and an amputated armrest. It took a moment for Elena to realize the armrest only looked amputated because it had been sheared off in the accident before penetrating the teenager's chest cavity, likely puncturing a lung if the bubbles frothing at the girl's lips were any indication.

Bubbles.

Elena's eyes tracked the dark froth dripping down the kid's neck.

Blood bubbles.

She sat up slowly, her ribcage protesting even though the fractures were probably already knitting. Without thinking, she traced a finger through a puddle of blood and brought it to her lips. The dying girl stared at her, eyes so wide they filled her entire ashen face.

Horrified and yet unable to control her hunger any longer, Elena licked the blood droplet from her fingers, then scooped more of the thick liquid into the hollow of her hand and lapped it greedily. When that was gone, she bent and slurped at the puddle until it was all gone save for the lingering sweetness clotting her gumline.

Elena lifted her head, searching for another source. Thick red smears coated the injured teenager's body, stemming from her central chest injuries. Almost salivating, Elena leaned forward and licked at a bloody cheek. Rather than abating, her hunger grew with each slow, sweet swipe. She followed the gory trail under the girl's chin all the way to her clavicle and sucked at the hollow, where a small pool of blood had collected.

Something brushed against Elena's head and she batted it away with one hand, solely focused on salvaging every precious blood droplet before she began draining the body of whatever small amount remained within its veins. Again, the unseen object trailed across her head, making her scalp itch.

Furious at the interruption, Elena snarled a warning and looked up to see who would be her next victim. Her eyes encountered the slack, gray face of her former seatmate, the man's body somehow entrapped between seats and hanging upside down grotesquely.

She screamed and scrambled backwards, the gaping wound in his neck every bit as accusing as his dead arms waving in her direction. As Elena stared in horror, a terrible sound came from the teenager's destroyed lungs, something like a wet cough combined with a dry, sucking wheeze. Elena's gaze darted sideways just in time to spot the girl's head jerking back, her mouth opening in a soundless gasp before she sagged forward on her plastic stake, never to move again.

Abruptly, Elena came to her human senses. She looked around and finally saw the carnage around her-people crumpled at odd, inhuman angles, dead, certainly.

Weeping parents, cradling broken infants, screaming infants pleading for broken parents. Elderly passengers moaning quietly, their bones snapped like twigs, punctured organs leaking their lives rapidly away.

Less injured passengers, all with equally traumatized faces, moved from person to person, trying to offer some small comfort, whispering promises that help was on the way.

She wanted to help them so badly ... and yet ... the urge to feed on them was stronger. Everywhere she looked, she saw not injured bodies but blood. Not weeping faces but weeping hearts, pumping out precious nourishment with each adrenaline-laced beat. Every moment she stayed on the bus, her self-control faded. Already, the dark little voice of vampiric reason was taking over completely.

_Why bother with puddles and smears when you have all those beautiful arteries, so many of them conveniently open for you already ... They're going to die anyway. You'll just be speeding up the process and easing their pain ... _

Reality washed over Elena with the same force as the waters under Wickery Bridge. She couldn't help. If she stayed any longer, the bus accident would be far from the worst thing to happen to these passengers.

Elena crouched tensely then sprang through an already partially shattered window. She didn't dare take time to figure out which direction the bus had been headed, nor did she allow herself to check on the wreckage of the nearby pickup truck that had probably caused the accident. Without looking back she sped into the night, face wet with blood and tears of self-revulsion even as her inner predator screamed with thwarted rage.

TVDTVDTVD

**A/N: I rewrote this chapter about 4 times before deciding if I liked it. I really hope it turned out okay and would love your feedback on whether or not it did. The whole "memory" scene was meant to be tangled up and confusing, but hopefully still came out somewhat coherent. Oh, and for those who are wondering, Elena will soon be doing some serious thinking about that previously deleted memory of their first meeting.**

**PS: Damon will catch up to her by Chapter 7. I promise. :)**


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